Deviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

[Veldruk]

Hey guys!

 

I was just thinking last night why all the law enforcement and military train to shoot center mass and how that could transcribe into Hero System. In the real world you aim center mass to increase your chances to hit something. With this set of house rules I've created, now hero system will be able to do just that!

 

I've made a handy reference sheet to basically sum up all the rules and how to's, check it out:

 

With this system it wouldn't always benifit the player to do called shots. If the player just wants to hit the target, then the good old OCV non-called-shot roll would be the best. But with this "called shot deviance" set of rules, if the player's OCV roll would have hit the character without the called shot, after the deviance rolls are made, there is still a chance that they will miss.

 

For instance:

Target's DCV = 4

Players OCV = 6

Player makes a called shot for the Chest (-3 OCV)

Player rolls 11

Traditional rules would say that he missed ( 6+11-3-11= 3 )

But with this optional rule if the character rolls a 3 and then another 3, the bullet would go between the target's legs.

 

This is just a little optional rule that I came up with last night when trying to figure out how to make my Western Hero game more life like. I may only whip this out on the important fights instead of the boring old bandits.

 

Some final notes: This probably wouldn't work with melee to well unless the character was doing nothing but stabbing. But I suppose even with a slashing attack this optional rule might work. Slash at the chest coming in from the target's left and end up hitting the target's right hand? The target pivoted back and threw his hand up for balance... poor guy.

 

Also I have not tried this in practice yet. My next game is coming up within a week or so and I'll ask the players if they wanna try it out or not. Even if the players opt to bring it in but decide not to make every shot a called shot and still make classic OCV, Location, Damage rolls that is fine too.

 

Tell me what you think!

 

-V

[Veldruk]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

Whoops.

 

I forgot to turn the "vector" hex 30 degrees clockwise for it to match the orientation of the rest of the hexes. So on the 1-6 hex, just turn that clockwise to match the rest. I'll post an updated picture soon.

[torchwolf]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

Actually, NeoGames (of Sweden) published a game called Western a few years back that used exactly the mechanic you suggest. It should work pretty well in practice, depending on the level of accuracy you want.

 

An old straight-bore gun would have an accuracy dependent on the precision qualities of both the cast of the bullets and the cast of the barrel of the gun, as well as how well the gun was cleaned before shooting (i.e., after a number of shots the accuracy would decline as well).

 

The deviation of the bullet path from where you were actually aiming could easily be more than you suggested - you could count the deviation from a hit margin of 2 and up.

 

Your deviation pattern would just as easily work with a series of concentric circles superimposed over the target silhouette - in that case it would automatically compensate for a target crouching/behind cover/prone/etc. You could also use similar target silhouettes for animals or other stuff.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

There is a game called 'Millenium's End which uses a transparent plastic overlay. You define your aim point on a target silhouette (there are various different poses and sizes to account for distance and stance) THEN roll, and the result determines where you hit. Very interesting system, but a bit unwieldy for everyday useage.

 

Hit deviation is something Hero has avoided. I like your system in theory - very elegant - but in practice, if you are good enough to aim for head or vitals you will almost certainly hit with a 'normal shot', which means you have a 50% chance of a miss being converted to a hit, still with a chance of a 'critical' hit.

 

To me that puts too much emphasis on game mechanics over real world tactics - as you say, centre of mass is favourite for good reason.

 

As this increases the utility of aimed shots, I can see them being used a lot more which may slow play down considerably.

[Veldruk]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

I wouldn't say that there would be a 50% chance of a miss being converted into a hit. Remember, the "miss" can travel up to 6 hexes from the aimed position, and there is plenty of negative space for the bullet to travel as well.

 

Look at it this way. First the player will of had to hit the target's DCV without the penalty for aiming. Then for every location there are 36 different hexes that the projectile could potentially hit. So lets take the chest. From the chest, the only possible locations to hit would be 7 (2x Shoulders, 2x Hands, Head, Stomach, Vitals). 7 outta 36 possibilities.

 

So that right there is closer to a 20% chance of a miss being turned into a hit, and the chest has this highest probable chance to hit another part of the body. I think it's tied with the head and the other "center mass" targets have 6.

 

And the rest of the locations have even fewer outta the 36 to actually hit anything.

 

I'm not saying that this should be written into the 6th Ed, just wanted to share what I had come up with... which apparently is very close to what other gaming companies have mustered.

 

I don't think I'll be making silhouettes for animals and the like tho, and the "are they behind cover" thing will come into play assuming that the player wants to do an aimed shot instead of using the Hero rules for shooting at someone behind cover.

[Crypt]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

I like the general idea despite the fact that the deviation should (imo) varies with the distance to the target (the more distance the more deviation.)

For instance you may simply add the range penalty to the number of deviation's hexes.

There are two interesting consequences =

- weapons could have deviation mods.

- the character could buy penalty skill levels to negate them. For instance in a "deviation compensator focus"

 

For instance a shot at 14 meters (-2) with a 1" deviating weapon + 1d6 (ex:3) - 1" compensator = 2+1+3-1 = 5" deviation on your chart.

 

 

 

 

Another (very simple) possible house rule = instead of declaring called shots before the hit roll you may see it as choices offered after the roll.

For instance your hitting success margin is 4 (do not count called shot penalties when rolling to hit)

So you may choose those locations: chest or thighs because their mods are -3 and -4 (or choose to roll for 3d6)

If you had succeed by a margin of 8 you could choose any location (or choose to roll for 3d6.)

If you had succeed by 2 or less (*) you may not choose any location so you simply roll 3d6.

Etc.

It makes combats more violent (sensible locs would be hit more often) and would not suit to every styles of play.

 

(*)unless Mods are halved.

[Crypt]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

Another possibility is to replace your d6+various mods by twice the failure margin.

This way you are sure to (indirectly) take distance into account and this is globally faster than making an extra roll.

[schir1964]

Re: Diviation From Called Shots (House Rule)

 

Added to the [thread=42607]New Mechanic Ideas[/thread] thread.

 

- Christopher Mullins